Make This Mother’s Day Sweet As

By Amelia Hanslow

Jiggle Cheesecake

Truly, the giveaway for this cheesecake bakery’s signature cake is in the name of it, and yes, this light-as-a-feather cheesecake jiggles. These beauties are Instagrammable stuff (best suited to video to get the dancing action) and were made famous in Japan before hitting our shores. Sometimes called a soufflé cheesecake it’s not overly sweet and has fewer calories than the more traditional, heavier styles (not that we rate that as how we choose our sweet treats – especially on special occasions…)

Gelato Messina

Yeah, you’ve been living under a rock (and certainly not in the Parramatta region), if you haven’t heard of this world-famous-in-Sydney gelato. In the olden days (before Corona Lockdown), the lines snaked out the door when new flavours were released but now you can snaffle the same gelato and even have it home delivered through Deliveroo if you can’t leave your house but know that’s exactly the kind of gift your mum would most appreciate. For a gelato with a distinctly Australian-style (okay, okay, perhaps Kiwi-style as well), you can’t go wrong with the current special ‘Pavlova’ – vanilla gelato, raspberry and passionfruit puree and baked meringue.

Taj Indian Sweets and Restaurant

This purely-vegetarian restaurant was one of the very first to open its doors in Harris Park – a pocket of Parramatta that has over the last decade become renowned in greater Sydney as the beating heart of the Indian subcontinent. Before Diwali (the Indian festival of light), this little shop will sell well over $100,000 worth of housemade sweets – so with that kind of community recommendation you could do worse than treat mum to some of the sweets that come from here, including some appropriately bling numbers touched up with silver leaf.

Abla’s Patistries

Famously owned by the Abla family for over 30 years, Abla’s is regarded as your one-stop-shop for Lebanese pastries. For those as yet not in the know, think honey, a unique cream called ‘ashta’ and hand decorated chocolates. It doesn’t get more indulgent than a mixed tray of baklawa – variations on pastry layered with pistachios, walnuts, honey, citrus and spices. Best served with a strong black coffee!